1. Technical Field:
This invention relates to tuyeres such as used for introducing gas or oxygen into molten metal in a vessel adjacent the bottom thereof for stirring or refining a molten bath of steel making composition.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
Tuyeres for introducing gases into baths of molten metal for various purposes are disclosed in U.S. Pats. Nos. 3,898,078, 3,967,955, and 4,211,553.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,898,078 illustrates in FIG. 3 of the drawings a vessel containing molten metal in which a tuyere or a nozzle 10 is positioned in a side wall thereof adjacent the bottom of the vessel.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,955 discloses a tuyere positioned in a converter through a side wall thereof, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,211,553 in FIG. 3 thereof illustrates a tuyere positioned through the side wall of a vessel so as to introduce gas into the vessel adjacent the bottom thereof.
Many variations of tuyere constructions are known in the prior art, the majority of which simply introduce either a stirring or blowing gas or a refining gas, such as oxygen, into molten metal in vessels including converters, ladles, and the like. The above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,898,078 discloses a device operable as a tuyere in introducing oxygen as a refining agent into molten metal through a large straightaway passageway defined by a pair of tubular members, one of which is spaced within the other and provided with a thickened end portion in which helical passageways are formed as by machining. Fuel, such as oil, forms a cooling agent directed through the helical passageways and is discharged into the molten metal along with oxygen flowing through the axial passageway. The swirling motion created by the oil flowing from the helical passageway enhances the atomization of the oil necessary in increasing combustion efficiency of the oil forming a hydrocarbon fuel in the steel refining process.
The present invention is not used as a means of introducing a hydrocarbon fuel into a metal bath, but rather introducing either a gas as an agent creating a desirable bottom stirring in the metal bath and/or introducing a refining agent such as oxygen. The refractory core formed in the tubular body member and within several spirally wound metal tubes and their longitudinally extending sections mechanically locks the same in desired contacting arrangement with the tubular body member of the tuyere and the open ends of the tubular body members which are flattened to form volume controlling valves and jet configurations of the gas delivered therefrom provide a tangential flow of the gas which causes a circular stirring motion in the molten metal bath.